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TO help
mitigate the rise of food, oil and fertilizer prices,
the United Nations International Fund for Agricultural
Development (Ifad) has set aside $200 million to help
poor farmers around the world meet their needs for the
coming farming season.
The Ifad
said in a statement it hoped the fund would help prevent
450 million smallholder farmers from being thrust into
abject poverty.
“The
capacity of the world’s 450 million smallholder farmers
to respond by growing more food is at risk because of
spiraling energy and fertilizer prices. Poor farmers are
not reaping the benefits of higher food prices because
they cannot afford the fertilizer or seeds to plant next
season’s crops,” said Ifad president Lennart Båge.
“Poor
rural farmers are central to any solution to today’s
global food crisis and the long-term problems of hunger
and poverty,” he added.
Båge
also called for concerted, comprehensive and coordinated
action to be taken by the international community to
prevent the slide of millions into abject poverty and
suggested a three-pronged strategy to achieve this end.
He said
this strategy includes providing emergency food aid;
supporting, in the short term, smallholder farmers in
their bid to plan next season’s crops; and longer-term
investment in agriculture to ensure food security,
nutrition and rural development.
“The
world has underinvested in agriculture and rural
development for far too long. It is high time to put
this right,” he said.
Earlier,
UN World Food Programme (WFP) executive director Josette
Sheeran alerted the world that farmers are joining the
ranks of the “new face of hunger,” with millions being
pushed into the urgent hunger category.
“Despite
the higher prices farmers can get for their products,
many do not have access to credit or any form of support
and are, therefore, unable to afford the inputs required
and must plant less,” the WFP said in a statement.
“We can
buy 40 percent less food than we could last June with
the same contribution,” said Sheeran, who added that as
many as 100 million people face being pushed deeper into
poverty.
The
aggressive price increases caused by such factors as
income growth, rising oil prices, increasingly severe
weather and trade policy, among others, began last June,
she noted. In the past month alone, the price of rice in
Asia has nearly doubled.
Sheeran
also said more than 70 percent of the household incomes
in developing countries like the
Philippines
is allocated for food. As a result, people earning less
than $1 a day are bound to cut back on meals and would
be forced to eat only several times a week.
“We’re
also concerned because this isn’t just an issue of
hunger, but also an issue of instability,” Sheeran said.
She added that protests against soaring food prices have
already been going on in dozens of countries because of
this.
There is
also the additional challenge of adequate supply, with
up to 40 countries now imposing export bans on food so
that importing countries are able to buy less than what
their people need.
Those
most at risk are children and mothers, refugees and
internally displaced persons, pastoralists and the urban
poor, the WFP said. |
